5.0 KiB
[DC] The Bouletcorp, Traps
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Author: u/alexanderwales Time flies like an arrow*
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URL: http://english.bouletcorp.com/2016/05/06/traps/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=traps
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Score: 54
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Created: 2016-05-06T02:59:36
Post:
Comments:
u/callmebrotherg [+12] now posting as /u/callmesalticidae (2 hours later)
I love the Hunger Games suggestion to build community centers.
(I subscribe to the headcanon that the Hunger Games were actually a way to indirectly keep the Capital's people in line, more than the districts)
u/PeridexisErrant [+7] put aside fear for courage, and death for life (8 hours later)
Oh, absolutely. Just think: who got the bread and circuses?
u/trekie140 [+5] (12 hours later)
That's a good theory. I'm unique in that I couldn't enjoy The Hunger Games at all because the world doesn't make any sense from an economic or a sociological perspective. Not only did I think the people of the Capital were idiots, but I couldn't get behind the social satire because Panem was so unlike our world that I found it impossible to relate it to our own.
The chief reason I couldn't suspend my disbelief was that the people of the Capital aren't actually rich, they just indulge in luxuries. Rich people get money from something, these people just have everything they want because they live in the Capital. There's also the fact that the Games aren't intimidating because they don't threaten death, they guarantee it.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+4] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (a day later)
I'm unique in that I couldn't enjoy The Hunger Games at all because the world doesn't make any sense from an economic or a sociological perspective.
You're not the only one by any means.
u/Iconochasm [+2] (2 days later)
I couldn't enjoy The Hunger Games at all because the world doesn't make any sense from an economic or a sociological perspective.
That's the most interesting thing about the books, imo. There's so little worldbuilding, that it serves as a kind of political/economic litmus test. Most readers seemed to just fill in the copious, gaping blanks with their own preconceptions and biases.
u/noggin-scratcher [+13] I am a happy tree (7 hours later)
From the hovertext
If I want to protect some shit I don't put RIDDLES in order to do that. Noone can resist a good riddle! Put a riddle on a safe, I'll be trying to crack it just for fun, even if I don't care about what's inside the safe.
Also, importantly, riddles don't distinguish Friend from Foe - they're a test of intellect rather than of motives. See this shit all the time, where solving puzzles and riddles is how you prove you're "the chosen one" (Redwall did it in about every second book), which only works when all the bad guys in the universe are comically stupid.
Which, I mean... they often are stupid, because a competent antagonist would have resolved the plot in their own favour while the hero was still busy having some dilemma or crisis of confidence about whether to even try to be a hero. But you shouldn't be able to predict ahead of time that your chosen hero is going to be the only one smart enough to solve your mystery.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+13] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (10 hours later)
You need a riddle that's actually impossible to figure out logically. The hero has a genre-knowledge link to the good god who inspires her to blurt it out. It's actually a one-time password. Mystical equivalent of texting "312659" to your phone.
u/Xtraordinaire [+3] Team Glimglam (17 hours later)
Oh testing intellect is alright. It just means the Chosen One isn't actually One. He is probably Chosen Seventeen. The other sixteen? Well... here's the thing about those riddles...
u/gabbalis [+18] (32 minutes later)
I suspect it's a case of supervillian status signaling. By putting the artifact in an expensive temple that doesn't do its job, you indicate both that you go out of your way for style, and that the artifact doesn't even matter that much to you.
When you build a zillion dollar arena to make kids fight to the death, you show that you're willing to pay extravagantly just to kick a few extra puppies.
It's a supervillain thing.
u/Iconochasm [+17] (41 minutes later)
It's the difference between a villain and a supervillain: PRESENTATION!
u/rationalidurr [+3] If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight! (16 hours later)
PRECISELY! Whats the point of having power you can't avoid things like rules,waiting time, social image or even tedious and boring work.
Rational behavior of anyone with any modicum of self-sustaining power should be acting in a way they feels most enjoyable, and not worry so much about efficiency and social status.